8 Mile|Penobscot Building — forty-seven floors of art deco and one radio station

645 Griswold Street is where the film sends Rabbit when the story needs a door that money and access sit behind. The Penobscot Building went up in 1928, designed by Wirt Rowland, 47 storeys of setback limestone with Native American motifs carved into the entrance and a red beacon on the mast that pilots used to steer by. For nearly fifty years it was the tallest building in Detroit and the tallest outside New York and Chicago. The lobby is a cathedral of marble and brass, and the elevator ride up is a small ceremony.

In 8 Mile the tower holds the WJLB studios, the local station that could put a demo tape on the air of every car in the city — the thing Rabbit wants and Wink promises. It is the film's clearest picture of the gap between the trailer on Schultes Avenue and the room where careers are made: eight miles and forty-seven floors.

The building still works as offices, and access above the lobby is restricted, so the visit is the entrance and the ground floor. Come at street level on Griswold, look up until the setbacks stack away from you, then step inside and read the ceiling. On a clear night you can see the beacon burning red from the riverfront, which is the closest thing downtown Detroit has to a lighthouse.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons.